A metacharacter is one of the following characters:

; & ( ) | < > NEWLINE SPACE TAB

A blank is a TAB or a SPACE. An identifier is a sequence of letters, digits, or underscores starting with a letter or underscore. Identifiers are used as names for functions and variables. A word is a sequence of characters separated by one or more non-quoted metacharacters.

A command is a sequence of characters in the syntax of the shell language. The shell reads each command and carries out the desired action either directly or by invoking separate utilities. A special-command is a command that is carried out by the shell without creating a separate process. Except for documented side effects, most special commands can be implemented as separate utilities.

A simple-command is a sequence of blank-separated words which may be preceded by a variable assignment list. (See Environment below.) The first word specifies the name of the command to be executed. Except as specified below, the remaining words are passed as arguments to the invoked command. The command name is passed as argument 0 (see exec(2)). The value of a simple-command is its exit status if it terminates normally. If it terminates abnormally due to receipt of a signal, the value is the signal number plus 128. See signal(3HEAD) for a list of signal values. Obviously, normal exit status values 129 to 255 cannot be distinguished from abnormal exit caused by receiving signal numbers 1 to 127.

A pipeline is a sequence of one or more commands separated by |. The standard output of each command but the last is connected by a pipe(2) to the standard input of the next command. Each command is run as a separate process; the shell waits for the last command to terminate. The exit status of a pipeline is the exit status of the last command.

A list is a sequence of one or more pipelines separated by ;, &, &&, or ||, and optionally terminated by ;, &, or |&. Of these five symbols, ;, &, and |& have equal precedence, which is lower than that of && and ||. The symbols && and || also have equal precedence. A semicolon (;) causes sequential execution of the preceding pipeline; an ampersand (&) causes asynchronous execution of the preceding pipeline (that is, the shell does not wait for that pipeline to finish). The symbol |& causes asynchronous execution of the preceding command or pipeline with a two-way pipe established to the parent shell.

The standard input and output of the spawned command can be written to and read from by the parent shell using the -p option of the special commands read and print described in Special Commands. The symbol && (||) causes the list following it to be executed only if the preceding pipeline returns 0 (or a non-zero) value. An arbitrary number of new-lines may appear in a list, instead of a semicolon, to delimit a command.

A command is either a simple-command or one of the following. Unless otherwise stated, the value returned by a command is that of the last simple-command executed in the command.

for identifier [ in word ... ] ; do list ; done

Each time a for command is executed, identifier is set to the next word taken from the in word list. If in word ... is omitted, then the for command executes the do list once for each positional parameter that is set (see Parameter Substitution below). Execution ends when there are no more words in the list.

select identifier [ in word ... ] ; do list ; done

A select command prints to standard error (file descriptor 2), the set of words, each preceded by a number. If in word ... is omitted, then the positional parameters are used instead (see Parameter Substitution below). The PS3 prompt is printed and a line is read from the standard input. If this line consists of the number of one of the listed words, then the value of the variable identifier is set to the word corresponding to this number. If this line is empty the selection list is printed again. Otherwise the value of the variable identifier is set to NULL. (See Blank Interpretation about NULL). The contents of the line read from standard input is saved in the shell variable REPLY. The list is executed for each selection until a break or EOF is encountered. If the REPLY variable is set to NULL by the execution of list, then the selection list is printed before displaying the PS3 prompt for the next selection.

case word in [ pattern [ | pattern ] ) list ;; ] ... esac

A case command executes the list associated with the first pattern that matches word. The form of the patterns is the same as that used for file-name generation (see File Name Generation below).

if list ; then list ; [ elif list ; then list ; ... ] [ else list ; ] fi

The list following if is executed and, if it returns an exit status of 0, the list following the first then is executed. Otherwise, the list following elif is executed and, if its value is 0, the list following the next then is executed. Failing that, the else list is executed. If no else list or then list is executed, then the if command returns 0 exit status.

while list ; do list ; done

until list ; do list ; done

A while command repeatedly executes the while list and, if the exit status of the last command in the list is 0, executes the do list; otherwise the loop terminates. If no commands in the do list are executed, then the while command returns 0 exit status. until may be used in place of while to negate the loop termination test.

(list)

Execute list in a separate environment. Notice that if two adjacent open parentheses are needed for nesting, a space must be inserted to avoid arithmetic evaluation as described below.

{list}

list is simply executed. Notice that, unlike the metacharacters ( and ), { and } are reserved words and must occur at the beginning of a line or after a ; in order to be recognized.

[[expression]]

Evaluates expression and returns 0 exit status when expression is true. See Conditional Expressions below, for a description of expression.

function identifier { list ;}

identifier() { list ;}

Define a function which is referenced by identifier. The body of the function is the list of commands between { and }. (See Functions below).

time pipeline

The pipeline is executed and the elapsed time as well as the user and system time are printed to standard error.

The following reserved words are only recognized as the first word of a command and when not quoted:

!          if       then     else    elif    fi      case
esac       for      while    until   do      done    {   }
function   select   time     [[  ]]

A word beginning with # causes that word and all the following characters up to a new-line to be ignored.

The first word of each command is replaced by the text of an alias if an alias for this word has been defined. An alias name consists of any number of characters excluding metacharacters, quoting characters, file expansion characters, parameter and command substitution characters, and =. The replacement string can contain any valid shell script including the metacharacters listed above. The first word of each command in the replaced text, other than any that are in the process of being replaced, will be tested for aliases. If the last character of the alias value is a blank then the word following the alias will also be checked for alias substitution. Aliases can be used to redefine special builtin commands but cannot be used to redefine the reserved words listed above. Aliases can be created, listed, and exported with the alias command and can be removed with the unalias command. Exported aliases remain in effect for scripts invoked by name, but must be reinitialized for separate invocations of the shell (see Invocation below). To prevent infinite loops in recursive aliasing, if the shell is not currently processing an alias of the same name, the word will be replaced by the value of the alias; otherwise, it will not be replaced.

Aliasing is performed when scripts are read, not while they are executed. Therefore, for an alias to take effect, the alias definition command has to be executed before the command which references the alias is read.

Aliases are frequently used as a short hand for full path names. An option to the aliasing facility allows the value of the alias to be automatically set to the full pathname of the corresponding command. These aliases are called tracked aliases. The value of a tracked alias is defined the first time the corresponding command is looked up and becomes undefined each time the PATH variable is reset. These aliases remain tracked so that the next subsequent reference will redefine the value. Several tracked aliases are compiled into the shell. The -h option of the set command makes each referenced command name into a tracked alias.

The following exported aliases are compiled into (and built-in to) the shell but can be unset or redefined:

autoload='typeset -fu'
false='let 0'
functions='typeset -f'
hash='alias -t'
history='fc -l'
integer='typeset -i'
nohup='nohup '
r='fc -e -'
true=':'
type='whence -v'

An example concerning trailing blank characters and reserved words follows. If the user types:

$ alias foo="/bin/ls "
$ alias while="/"

the effect of executing:

$ while true
> do
> echo "Hello, World"
> done

is a never-ending sequence of Hello, World strings to the screen. However, if the user types:

$ foo while

the result will be an ls listing of /. Since the alias substitution for foo ends in a space character, the next word is checked for alias substitution. The next word, while, has also been aliased, so it is substituted as well. Since it is not in the proper position as a command word, it is not recognized as a reserved word.

If the user types:

$ foo; while

while retains its normal reserved-word properties.

After alias substitution is performed, each word is checked to see if it begins with an unquoted ~. If it does, then the word up to a / is checked to see if it matches a user name. If a match is found, the ~ and the matched login name are replaced by the login directory of the matched user. This is called a tilde substitution. If no match is found, the original text is left unchanged. A ~ by itself, or in front of a /, is replaced by $HOME. A ~ followed by a + or - is replaced by $PWD and $OLDPWD, respectively.

In addition, tilde substitution is attempted when the value of a variable assignment begins with a ~.

A tilde-prefix consists of an unquoted tilde character at the beginning of a word, followed by all of the characters preceding the first unquoted slash in the word, or all the characters in the word if there is no slash. In an assignment, multiple tilde-prefixes can be used: at the beginning of the word (that is, following the equal sign of the assignment), following any unquoted colon or both. A tilde-prefix in an assignment is terminated by the first unquoted colon or slash. If none of the characters in the tilde-prefix are quoted, the characters in the tilde-prefix following the tilde are treated as a possible login name from the user database.

A portable login name cannot contain characters outside the set given in the description of the LOGNAME environment variable. If the login name is null (that is, the tilde-prefix contains only the tilde), the tilde-prefix will be replaced by the value of the variable HOME. If HOME is unset, the results are unspecified. Otherwise, the tilde-prefix will be replaced by a pathname of the home directory associated with the login name obtained using the getpwnam function. If the system does not recognize the login name, the results are undefined.

Tilde expansion generally occurs only at the beginning of words, but an exception based on historical practice has been included:

PATH=/posix/bin:~dgk/bin

is eligible for tilde expansion because tilde follows a colon and none of the relevant characters is quoted. Consideration was given to prohibiting this behavior because any of the following are reasonable substitutes:

PATH=$(printf %s ~karels/bin : ~bostic/bin)
for Dir in ~maart/bin ~srb/bin .
do
     PATH=${PATH:+$PATH:}$Dir
done

With the first command, explicit colons are used for each directory. In all cases, the shell performs tilde expansion on each directory because all are separate words to the shell.

Notice that expressions in operands such as:

make -k mumble LIBDIR=~chet/lib

do not qualify as shell variable assignments and tilde expansion is not performed (unless the command does so itself, which make does not).

The special sequence $~ has been designated for future implementations to evaluate as a means of forcing tilde expansion in any word.

Because of the requirement that the word not be quoted, the following are not equivalent; only the last will cause tilde expansion:

\~hlj/   ~h\lj/   ~"hlj"/   ~hlj\/   ~hlj/

The results of giving tilde with an unknown login name are undefined because the KornShell ~+ and ~- constructs make use of this condition, but, in general it is an error to give an incorrect login name with tilde. The results of having HOME unset are unspecified because some historical shells treat this as an error.

The standard output from a command enclosed in parenthesis preceded by a dollar sign (that is, $(command)) or a pair of grave accents (``) may be used as part or all of a word. Trailing new-lines are removed. In the second (archaic) form, the string between the quotes is processed for special quoting characters before the command is executed. (See Quoting below.) The command substitution $(cat file) can be replaced by the equivalent but faster $(<file). Command substitution of most special commands that do not perform input/output redirection are carried out without creating a separate process.

Command substitution allows the output of a command to be substituted in place of the command name itself. Command substitution occurs when the command is enclosed as follows:

$(command)

or (backquoted version):

`command`

The shell will expand the command substitution by executing command in a subshell environment and replacing the command substitution (the text of command plus the enclosing $() or backquotes) with the standard output of the command, removing sequences of one or more newline characters at the end of the substitution. Embedded newline characters before the end of the output will not be removed; however, they may be treated as field delimiters and eliminated during field splitting, depending on the value of IFS and quoting that is in effect.

Within the backquoted style of command substitution, backslash shall retain its literal meaning, except when followed by:

$     `     \

(dollar-sign, backquote, backslash). The search for the matching backquote is satisfied by the first backquote found without a preceding backslash. During this search, if a non-escaped backquote is encountered within a shell comment, a here-document, an embedded command substitution of the $(command) form, or a quoted string, undefined results occur. A single- or double-quoted string that begins, but does not end, within the `...` sequence produces undefined results.

With the $(command) form, all characters following the open parenthesis to the matching closing parenthesis constitute the command. Any valid shell script can be used for command, except:

• A script consisting solely of redirections produces unspecified results.
• See the restriction on single subshells described below.

The results of command substitution will not be field splitting and pathname expansion processed for further tilde expansion, parameter expansion, command substitution or arithmetic expansion. If a command substitution occurs inside double-quotes, it will not be performed on the results of the substitution.

Command substitution can be nested. To specify nesting within the backquoted version, the application must precede the inner backquotes with backslashes; for example:

`\`command\``

The $() form of command substitution solves a problem of inconsistent behavior when using backquotes. For example:

Additionally, the backquoted syntax has historical restrictions on the contents of the embedded command. While the new $() form can process any kind of valid embedded script, the backquoted form cannot handle some valid scripts that include backquotes. For example, these otherwise valid embedded scripts do not work in the left column, but do work on the right:

Because of these inconsistent behaviors, the backquoted variety of command substitution is not recommended for new applications that nest command substitutions or attempt to embed complex scripts.

If the command substitution consists of a single subshell, such as:

$( (command) )

a portable application must separate the $( and ( into two tokens (that is, separate them with white space). This is required to avoid any ambiguities with arithmetic expansion.

An arithmetic expression enclosed in double parentheses preceded by a dollar sign ( $((arithmetic-expression)) ) is replaced by the value of the arithmetic expression within the double parenthesis. Arithmetic expansion provides a mechanism for evaluating an arithmetic expression and substituting its value. The format for arithmetic expansion is as follows:

$((expression))

The expression is treated as if it were in double-quotes, except that a double-quote inside the expression is not treated specially. The shell will expand all tokens in the expression for parameter expansion, command substitution and quote removal.

Next, the shell will treat this as an arithmetic expression and substitute the value of the expression. The arithmetic expression will be processed according to the rules of the ISO C with the following exceptions:

• Only integer arithmetic is required.
• The sizeof() operator and the prefix and postfix ++ and -- operators are not required.
• Selection, iteration, and jump statements are not supported.
• /usr/bin/ksh and /usr/bin/rksh treat prefix 0 through 9 as decimal constants. See the examples below.

  Command	Result in /bin/ksh	Result in /usr/xpg4/bin/sh
  echo $((019+10))	20	18
  echo $((010+10))	29	error
  [ 10 --le $((011)) ]	true	false

As an extension, the shell may recognize arithmetic expressions beyond those listed. If the expression is invalid, the expansion will fail and the shell will write a message to standard error indicating the failure.

A simple example using arithmetic expansion:

# repeat a command 100 times
x=100
while [ $x -gt 0 ]
do
     command
     x=$(($x-1))
done

This feature is available in SunOS and only on versions of the UNIX operating system that support the /dev/fd directory for naming open files. Each command argument of the form <(list) or >(list) will run process list asynchronously connected to some file in /dev/fd. The name of this file will become the argument to the command. If the form with > is selected, then writing on this file will provide input for list. If < is used, then the file passed as an argument will contain the output of the list process. For example:

paste <(cut -f1 file1) <(cut -f3 file2) | tee >(process1) >(process2)

cuts fields 1 and 3 from the files file1 and file2, respectively, pastes the results together, and sends it to the processes process1 and process2, as well as putting it onto the standard output. Notice that the file, which is passed as an argument to the command, is a UNIX pipe(2) so programs that expect to lseek(2) on the file will not work.

A parameter is an identifier, one or more digits, or any of the characters *, @, #, ?, -, $, and !. A variable (a parameter denoted by an identifier) has a value and zero or more attributes. variables can be assigned values and attributes by using the typeset special command. The attributes supported by the shell are described later with the typeset special command. Exported variables pass values and attributes to the environment.

The shell supports a one-dimensional array facility. An element of an array variable is referenced by a subscript. A subscript is denoted by a [, followed by an arithmetic expression (see Arithmetic Evaluation below) followed by a ]. To assign values to an array, use set -A name value .... The value of all subscripts must be in the range of 0 through 4095. Arrays need not be declared. Any reference to a variable with a valid subscript is legal and an array will be created if necessary. Referencing an array without a subscript is equivalent to referencing the element 0. If an array identifier with subscript * or @ is used, then the value for each of the elements is substituted (separated by a field separator character).

The value of a variable may be assigned by writing:

name=value [ name=value ] ...

If the integer attribute, -i, is set for name, the value is subject to arithmetic evaluation as described below.

Positional parameters, parameters denoted by a number, may be assigned values with the set special command. Parameter $0 is set from argument zero when the shell is invoked. If parameter is one or more digits then it is a positional parameter. A positional parameter of more than one digit must be enclosed in braces.

The format for parameter expansion is as follows:

${expression}

where expression consists of all characters until the matching }. Any } escaped by a backslash or within a quoted string, and characters in embedded arithmetic expansions, command substitutions and variable expansions, are not examined in determining the matching }.

The simplest form for parameter expansion is:

${parameter}

The value, if any, of parameter will be substituted.

The parameter name or symbol can be enclosed in braces, which are optional except for positional parameters with more than one digit or when parameter is followed by a character that could be interpreted as part of the name. The matching closing brace will be determined by counting brace levels, skipping over enclosed quoted strings and command substitutions.

If the parameter name or symbol is not enclosed in braces, the expansion will use the longest valid name whether or not the symbol represented by that name exists. When the shell is scanning its input to determine the boundaries of a name, it is not bound by its knowledge of what names are already defined. For example, if F is a defined shell variable, the command:

echo $Fred

does not echo the value of $F followed by red; it selects the longest possible valid name, Fred, which in this case might be unset.

If a parameter expansion occurs inside double-quotes:

• Pathname expansion will not be performed on the results of the expansion.
• Field splitting will not be performed on the results of the expansion, with the exception of @.

In addition, a parameter expansion can be modified by using one of the following formats. In each case that a value of word is needed (based on the state of parameter, as described below), word will be subjected to tilde expansion, parameter expansion, command substitution and arithmetic expansion. If word is not needed, it will not be expanded. The } character that delimits the following parameter expansion modifications is determined as described previously in this section and in dquote. (For example, ${foo-bar}xyz} would result in the expansion of foo followed by the string xyz} if foo is set, else the string barxyz}).

${parameter:-word}

Use Default Values. If parameter is unset or null, the expansion of word will be substituted; otherwise, the value of parameter will be substituted.

${parameter:=word}

Assign Default Values. If parameter is unset or null, the expansion of word will be assigned to parameter. In all cases, the final value of parameter will be substituted. Only variables, not positional parameters or special parameters, can be assigned in this way.

${parameter:?[word]}

Indicate Error if Null or Unset. If parameter is unset or null, the expansion of word (or a message indicating it is unset if word is omitted) will be written to standard error and the shell will exit with a non-zero exit status. Otherwise, the value of parameter will be substituted. An interactive shell need not exit.

${parameter:+[word]}

Use Alternative Value. If parameter is unset or null, null will be substituted. Otherwise, the expansion of word will be substituted.

In the parameter expansions shown previously, use of the colon in the format results in a test for a parameter that is unset or null. Omission of the colon results in a test for a parameter that is only unset. The following two tables summarize the effect of the colon:

In all cases shown with "substitute", the expression is replaced with the value shown. In all cases shown with "assign", parameter is assigned that value, which also replaces the expression.

${#parameter}

String Length. The length in characters of the value of parameter. If parameter is * or @, then all the positional parameters, starting with $1, are substituted (separated by a field separator character).

The following four varieties of parameter expansion provide for substring processing. In each case, pattern matching notation (see patmat), rather than regular expression notation, will be used to evaluate the patterns. If parameter is * or @, then all the positional parameters, starting with $1, are substituted (separated by a field separator character). Enclosing the full parameter expansion string in double-quotes will not cause the following four varieties of pattern characters to be quoted, whereas quoting characters within the braces will have this effect.

${parameter%word}

Remove Smallest Suffix Pattern. The word will be expanded to produce a pattern. The parameter expansion then will result in parameter, with the smallest portion of the suffix matched by the pattern deleted.

${parameter%%word}

Remove Largest Suffix Pattern. The word will be expanded to produce a pattern. The parameter expansion then will result in parameter, with the largest portion of the suffix matched by the pattern deleted.

${parameter#word}

Remove Smallest Prefix Pattern. The word will be expanded to produce a pattern. The parameter expansion then will result in parameter, with the smallest portion of the prefix matched by the pattern deleted.

${parameter##word}

Remove Largest Prefix Pattern. The word will be expanded to produce a pattern. The parameter expansion then will result in parameter, with the largest portion of the prefix matched by the pattern deleted.

Examples:

${parameter:-word}

In this example, ls is executed only if x is null or unset. (The $(ls) command substitution notation is explained in Command Substitution above.)

${x:-$(ls)}

${parameter:=word}

unset X echo ${X:=abc} abc

${parameter:?word}

unset posix echo ${posix:?} sh: posix: parameter null or not set

${parameter:+word}

set a b c echo ${3:+posix} posix

${#parameter}

HOME=/usr/posix echo ${#HOME} 10

${parameter%word}

x=file.c echo ${x%.c}.o file.o

${parameter%%word}

x=posix/src/std echo ${x%%/*} posix

${parameter#word}

x=$HOME/src/cmd echo ${x#$HOME} /src/cmd

${parameter##word}

x=/one/two/three echo ${x##*/} three

The following parameters are automatically set by the shell:

#

The number of positional parameters in decimal.

-

Flags supplied to the shell on invocation or by the set command.

?

The decimal value returned by the last executed command.

$

The process number of this shell.

_

Initially, the value of _ is an absolute pathname of the shell or script being executed as passed in the environment. Subsequently it is assigned the last argument of the previous command. This parameter is not set for commands which are asynchronous. This parameter is also used to hold the name of the matching MAIL file when checking for mail.

!

The process number of the last background command invoked.

ERRNO

The value of errno as set by the most recently failed system call. This value is system dependent and is intended for debugging purposes.

LINENO

The line number of the current line within the script or function being executed.

OLDPWD

The previous working directory set by the cd command.

OPTARG

The value of the last option argument processed by the getopts special command.

OPTIND

The index of the last option argument processed by the getopts special command.

PPID

The process number of the parent of the shell.

PWD

The present working directory set by the cd command.

RANDOM

Each time this variable is referenced, a random integer, uniformly distributed between 0 and 32767, is generated. The sequence of random numbers can be initialized by assigning a numeric value to RANDOM.

REPLY

This variable is set by the select statement and by the read special command when no arguments are supplied.

SECONDS

Each time this variable is referenced, the number of seconds since shell invocation is returned. If this variable is assigned a value, then the value returned upon reference will be the value that was assigned plus the number of seconds since the assignment.

The following variables are used by the shell:

CDPATH

The search path for the cd command.

COLUMNS

If this variable is set, the value is used to define the width of the edit window for the shell edit modes and for printing select lists.

EDITOR

If the value of this variable ends in emacs, gmacs, or vi and the VISUAL variable is not set, then the corresponding option (see the set special command below) will be turned on.

ENV

This variable, when the shell is invoked, is subjected to parameter expansion by the shell and the resulting value is used as a pathname of a file containing shell commands to execute in the current environment. The file need not be executable. If the expanded value of ENV is not an absolute pathname, the results are unspecified. ENV will be ignored if the user's real and effective user IDs or real and effective group IDs are different.

This variable can be used to set aliases and other items local to the invocation of a shell. The file referred to by ENV differs from $HOME/.profile in that .profile is typically executed at session startup, whereas the ENV file is executed at the beginning of each shell invocation. The ENV value is interpreted in a manner similar to a dot script, in that the commands are executed in the current environment and the file needs to be readable, but not executable. However, unlike dot scripts, no PATH searching is performed. This is used as a guard against Trojan Horse security breaches.

FCEDIT

The default editor name for the fc command.

FPATH

The search path for function definitions. By default, the FPATH directories are searched after the PATH variable. If an executable file is found, then it is read and executed in the current environment. FPATH is searched before PATH when a function with the -u attribute is referenced. The preset alias autoload causes a function with the -u attribute to be created.

HISTFILE

If this variable is set when the shell is invoked, then the value is the pathname of the file that will be used to store the command history. (See Command re-entry below.)

HISTSIZE

If this variable is set when the shell is invoked, then the number of previously entered commands that are accessible by this shell will be greater than or equal to this number. The default is 128.

HOME

The default argument (home directory) for the cd command.

IFS

Internal field separators, normally space, tab, and new-line that are used to separate command words which result from command or parameter substitution and for separating words with the special command read. The first character of the IFS variable is used to separate arguments for the $* substitution (See Quoting below).

LANG

Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. If any of the internationalization variables contains an invalid setting, the utility will behave as if none of the variables had been defined.

LC_ALL

This variable provides a default value for the LC_* variables.

LC_COLLATE

This variable determines the behavior of range expressions, equivalence classes and multi-byte character collating elements within pattern matching.

LC_CTYPE

Determines how the shell handles characters. When LC_CTYPE is set to a valid value, the shell can display and handle text and filenames containing valid characters for that locale. If LC_CTYPE (see environ(5)) is not set in the environment, the operational behavior of the shell is determined by the value of the LANG environment variable. If LC_ALL is set, its contents are used to override both the LANG and the other LC_* variables.

LC_MESSAGES

This variable determines the language in which messages should be written.

LINENO

This variable is set by the shell to a decimal number representing the current sequential line number (numbered starting with 1) within a script or function before it executes each command. If the user unsets or resets LINENO, the variable may lose its special meaning for the life of the shell. If the shell is not currently executing a script or function, the value of LINENO is unspecified.

LINES

If this variable is set, the value is used to determine the column length for printing select lists. Select lists will print vertically until about two-thirds of LINES lines are filled.

MAIL

If this variable is set to the name of a mail file and the MAILPATH variable is not set, then the shell informs the user of arrival of mail in the specified file.

MAILCHECK

This variable specifies how often (in seconds) the shell will check for changes in the modification time of any of the files specified by the MAILPATH or MAIL variables. The default value is 600 seconds. When the time has elapsed the shell will check before issuing the next prompt.

MAILPATH

A colon (:) separated list of file names. If this variable is set, then the shell informs the user of any modifications to the specified files that have occurred within the last MAILCHECK seconds. Each file name can be followed by a ? and a message that will be printed. The message will undergo parameter substitution with the variable $_ defined as the name of the file that has changed. The default message is you have mail in $_.

NLSPATH

Determine the location of message catalogues for the processing of LC_MESSAGES.

PATH

The search path for commands (see Execution below). The user may not change PATH if executing under rksh (except in .profile).

PPID

This variable is set by the shell to the decimal process ID of the process that invoked the shell. In a subshell, PPID will be set to the same value as that of the parent of the current shell. For example, echo $PPID and (echo $PPID) would produce the same value.

PS1

The value of this variable is expanded for parameter substitution to define the primary prompt string which by default is ``$ ''. The character ! in the primary prompt string is replaced by the command number (see Command Re-entry below). Two successive occurrences of ! will produce a single ! when the prompt string is printed.

PS2

Secondary prompt string, by default ``> ''.

PS3

Selection prompt string used within a select loop, by default ``#? ''.

PS4

The value of this variable is expanded for parameter substitution and precedes each line of an execution trace. If omitted, the execution trace prompt is ``+ ''.

SHELL

The pathname of the shell is kept in the environment. At invocation, if the basename of this variable is rsh, rksh, or krsh, then the shell becomes restricted.

TMOUT

If set to a value greater than zero, the shell will terminate if a command is not entered within the prescribed number of seconds after issuing the PS1 prompt. (Notice that the shell can be compiled with a maximum bound for this value which cannot be exceeded.)

VISUAL

If the value of this variable ends in emacs, gmacs, or vi, then the corresponding option (see Special Command set below) will be turned on.

The shell gives default values to PATH, PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4, MAILCHECK, FCEDIT, TMOUT, and IFS, while HOME, SHELL, ENV, and MAIL are not set at all by the shell (although HOME is set by login(1)). On some systems MAIL and SHELL are also set by login.

After parameter and command substitution, the results of substitutions are scanned for the field separator characters (those found in IFS) and split into distinct arguments where such characters are found. Explicit null arguments ( "" ) or ('') are retained. Implicit null arguments (those resulting from parameters that have no values) are removed.

Following substitution, each command word is scanned for the characters *, ?, and [ unless the -f option has been set. If one of these characters appears, the word is regarded as a pattern. The word is replaced with lexicographically sorted file names that match the pattern. If no file name is found that matches the pattern, the word is left unchanged. When a pattern is used for file name generation, the character period (.) at the start of a file name or immediately following a /, as well as the character / itself, must be matched explicitly. A file name beginning with a period will not be matched with a pattern with the period inside parentheses. That is, ls .@(r*) would locate a file named .restore, but ls @(.r*) would not. In other instances of pattern matching, the / and . are not treated specially.

*

Matches any string, including the null string.

?

Matches any single character.

[...]

Matches any one of the enclosed characters. A pair of characters separated by - matches any character lexically between the pair, inclusive. If the first character following the opening "[ " is a "! ", then any character not enclosed is matched. A - can be included in the character set by putting it as the first or last character.

A pattern-list is a list of one or more patterns separated from each other with a |. Composite patterns can be formed with one or more of the following:

?(pattern-list)

Optionally matches any one of the given patterns.

*(pattern-list)

Matches zero or more occurrences of the given patterns.

+(pattern-list)

Matches one or more occurrences of the given patterns.

@(pattern-list)

Matches exactly one of the given patterns.

!(pattern-list)

Matches anything, except one of the given patterns.

Each of the metacharacters listed above (see Definitions) has a special meaning to the shell and causes termination of a word unless quoted. A character may be quoted (that is, made to stand for itself) by preceding it with a \. The pair \NEWLINE is removed. All characters enclosed between a pair of single quote marks ( ' ') are quoted. A single quote cannot appear within single quotes. Inside double quote marks (""), parameter and command substitution occur and \ quotes the characters \, `, ", and $. The meaning of $* and $@ is identical when not quoted or when used as a parameter assignment value or as a file name. However, when used as a command argument, $* is equivalent to ``$1d$2d...'', where d is the first character of the IFS variable, whereas $@ is equivalent to $1 $2 .... Inside grave quote marks (``), \ quotes the characters \, ', and $. If the grave quotes occur within double quotes, then \ also quotes the character ".

The special meaning of reserved words or aliases can be removed by quoting any character of the reserved word. The recognition of function names or special command names listed below cannot be altered by quoting them.

An ability to perform integer arithmetic is provided with the special command let. Evaluations are performed using long arithmetic. Constants are of the form [ base# ] n where base is a decimal number between two and thirty-six representing the arithmetic base and n is a number in that base. If base is omitted then base 10 is used.

An arithmetic expression uses the same syntax, precedence, and associativity of expression as the C language. All the integral operators, other than ++, -;, ?:, and , are supported. Variables can be referenced by name within an arithmetic expression without using the parameter substitution syntax. When a variable is referenced, its value is evaluated as an arithmetic expression.

An internal integer representation of a variable can be specified with the -i option of the typeset special command. Arithmetic evaluation is performed on the value of each assignment to a variable with the -i attribute. If you do not specify an arithmetic base, the first assignment to the variable determines the arithmetic base. This base is used when parameter substitution occurs.

Since many of the arithmetic operators require quoting, an alternative form of the let command is provided. For any command which begins with a ((, all the characters until a matching )) are treated as a quoted expression. More precisely, ((...)) is equivalent to let "...".

When used interactively, the shell prompts with the parameter expanded value of PS1 before reading a command. If at any time a new-line is typed and further input is needed to complete a command, then the secondary prompt (that is, the value of PS2) is issued.

A conditional expression is used with the [[ compound command to test attributes of files and to compare strings. Word splitting and file name generation are not performed on the words between [[ and ]]. Each expression can be constructed from one or more of the following unary or binary expressions:

-a file

True, if file exists.

-b file

True, if file exists and is a block special file.

-c file

True, if file exists and is a character special file.

-d file

True, if file exists and is a directory.

-e file

True, if file exists.

-f file

True, if file exists and is an ordinary file.

-g file

True, if file exists and is has its setgid bit set.

-k file

True, if file exists and is has its sticky bit set.

-n string

True, if length of string is non-zero.

-o option

True, if option named option is on.

-p file

True, if file exists and is a fifo special file or a pipe.

-r file

True, if file exists and is readable by current process.

-s file

True, if file exists and has size greater than zero.

-t fildes

True, if file descriptor number fildes is open and associated with a terminal device.

-u file

True, if file exists and has its setuid bit set.

-w file

True, if file exists and is writable by current process.

-x file

True, if file exists and is executable by current process. If file exists and is a directory, then the current process has permission to search in the directory.

-z string

True, if length of string is zero.

-L file

True, if file exists and is a symbolic link.

-O file

True, if file exists and is owned by the effective user id of this process.

-G file

True, if file exists and its group matches the effective group id of this process.

-S file

True, if file exists and is a socket.

file1 -nt file2

True, if file1 exists and is newer than file2.

file1 -ot file2

True, if file1 exists and is older than file2.

file1 -ef file2

True, if file1 and file2 exist and refer to the same file.

string

True if the string string is not the null string.

string = pattern

True, if string matches pattern.

string != pattern

True, if string does not match pattern.

string1=string2

True if the strings string1 and string2 are identical.

string1! =string2

True if the strings string1 and string2 are not identical.

string1 < string2

True, if string1 comes before string2 based on strings interpreted as appropriate to the locale setting for category LC_COLLATE.

string1 > string2

True, if string1 comes after string2 based on strings interpreted as appropriate to the locale setting for category LC_COLLATE.

exp1 -eq exp2

True, if exp1 is equal to exp2.

exp1 -ne exp2

True, if exp1 is not equal to exp2.

exp1 -lt exp2

True, if exp1 is less than exp2.

exp1 -gt exp2

True, if exp1 is greater than exp2.

exp1 -le exp2

True, if exp1 is less than or equal to exp2.

exp1 -ge exp2

True, if exp1 is greater than or equal to exp2.

In each of the above expressions, if file is of the form /dev/fd/n, where n is an integer, then the test is applied to the open file whose descriptor number is n.

A compound expression can be constructed from these primitives by using any of the following, listed in decreasing order of precedence.

(expression)

True, if expression is true. Used to group expressions.

! expression

True if expression is false.

expression1 && expression2

True, if expression1 and expression2 are both true.

expression1 || expression2

True, if either expression1 or expression2 is true.

Before a command is executed, its input and output may be redirected using a special notation interpreted by the shell. The following may appear anywhere in a simple-command or may precede or follow a command and are not passed on to the invoked command. Command and parameter substitution occur before word or digit is used except as noted below. File name generation occurs only if the pattern matches a single file, and blank interpretation is not performed.

<word

Use file word as standard input (file descriptor 0).

>word

Use file word as standard output (file descriptor 1). If the file does not exist then it is created. If the file exists, and the noclobber option is on, this causes an error; otherwise, it is truncated to zero length.

>|word

Sames as >, except that it overrides the noclobber option.

>>word

Use file word as standard output. If the file exists, output is appended to it (by first seeking to the EOF). Otherwise, the file is created.

<>word

Open file word for reading and writing as standard input.

<< [-]word

The shell input is read up to a line that is the same as word, or to an EOF. No parameter substitution, command substitution, or file name generation is performed on word. The resulting document, called a here-document, becomes the standard input. If any character of word is quoted, no interpretation is placed upon the characters of the document. Otherwise, parameter and command substitution occur, \NEWLINE is ignored, and \ must be used to quote the characters \, $, `, and the first character of word. If - is appended to <<, then all leading tabs are stripped from word and from the document.

<&digit

The standard input is duplicated from file descriptor digit (see dup(2)). Similarly for the standard output using >&digit.

<&-

The standard input is closed. Similarly for the standard output using >&-.

<&p

The input from the co-process is moved to standard input.

>&p

The output to the co-process is moved to standard output.

If one of the above is preceded by a digit, then the file descriptor number referred to is that specified by the digit (instead of the default 0 or 1). For example:

... 2>&1

means file descriptor 2 is to be opened for writing as a duplicate of file descriptor 1.

The order in which redirections are specified is significant. The shell evaluates each redirection in terms of the (file descriptor, file) association at the time of evaluation. For example:

... 1>fname 2>&1

first associates file descriptor 1 with file fname. It then associates file descriptor 2 with the file associated with file descriptor 1 (that is, fname). If the order of redirections were reversed, file descriptor 2 would be associated with the terminal (assuming file descriptor 1 had been) and then file descriptor 1 would be associated with file fname.

If a command is followed by & and job control is not active, then the default standard input for the command is the empty file /dev/null. Otherwise, the environment for the execution of a command contains the file descriptors of the invoking shell as modified by input/output specifications.

The environment (see environ(5)) is a list of name-value pairs that is passed to an executed program in the same way as a normal argument list. The names must be identifiers and the values are character strings. The shell interacts with the environment in several ways. On invocation, the shell scans the environment and creates a variable for each name found, giving it the corresponding value and marking it export. Executed commands inherit the environment. If the user modifies the values of these variables or creates new ones, using the export or typeset -x commands, they become part of the environment. The environment seen by any executed command is thus composed of any name-value pairs originally inherited by the shell, whose values may be modified by the current shell, plus any additions which must be noted in export or typeset -x commands.

The environment for any simple-command or function may be augmented by prefixing it with one or more variable assignments. A variable assignment argument is a word of the form identifier=value. Thus:

TERM=450 cmd args

and

(export TERM; TERM=450; cmd args)

are equivalent (as far as the above execution of cmd is concerned, except for special commands listed below that are preceded with an asterisk).

If the -k flag is set, all variable assignment arguments are placed in the environment, even if they occur after the command name. The following first prints a=b c and then c:

echo a=b c
set -k echo
a=b c 

This feature is intended for use with scripts written for early versions of the shell and its use in new scripts is strongly discouraged. It is likely to disappear someday.

The function reserved word, described in the Commands section above, is used to define shell functions. Shell functions are read in and stored internally. Alias names are resolved when the function is read. Functions are executed like commands with the arguments passed as positional parameters. (See Execution below.)

Functions execute in the same process as the caller and share all files and present working directory with the caller. Traps caught by the caller are reset to their default action inside the function. A trap condition that is not caught or ignored by the function causes the function to terminate and the condition to be passed on to the caller.

A trap on EXIT set inside a function is executed after the function completes in the environment of the caller. This is true only for non-POSIX-style functions, that is, functions declared as

function func

as opposed to POSIX-style functions, declared as

func()

Ordinarily, variables are shared between the calling program and the function. However, the typeset special command used within a function defines local variables whose scope includes the current function and all functions it calls.

The special command return is used to return from function calls. Errors within functions return control to the caller.

The names of all functions can be listed with typeset+f. typeset -f lists all function names as well as the text of all functions. typeset -f function-names lists the text of the named functions only. Functions can be undefined with the -f option of the unset special command.

Ordinarily, functions are unset when the shell executes a shell script. The -xf option of the typeset command allows a function to be exported to scripts that are executed without a separate invocation of the shell. Functions that need to be defined across separate invocations of the shell should be specified in the ENV file with the -xf option of typeset.

A function is a user-defined name that is used as a simple command to call a compound command with new positional parameters. A function is defined with a function definition command.

The format of a function definition command is as follows:

fname() compound-command[io-redirect ...]

The function is named fname; it must be a name. An implementation may allow other characters in a function name as an extension. The implementation will maintain separate name spaces for functions and variables.

The () in the function definition command consists of two operators. Therefore, intermixing blank characters with the fname, (, and ) is allowed, but unnecessary.

The argument compound-command represents a compound command.

When the function is declared, none of the expansions in wordexp will be performed on the text in compound-command or io-redirect; all expansions will be performed as normal each time the function is called. Similarly, the optional io-redirect redirections and any variable assignments within compound-command will be performed during the execution of the function itself, not the function definition.

When a function is executed, it will have the syntax-error and variable-assignment properties described for the special built-in utilities.

The compound-command will be executed whenever the function name is specified as the name of a simple command The operands to the command temporarily will become the positional parameters during the execution of the compound-command; the special parameter # will also be changed to reflect the number of operands. The special parameter 0 will be unchanged. When the function completes, the values of the positional parameters and the special parameter # will be restored to the values they had before the function was executed. If the special built-in return is executed in the compound-command, the function will complete and execution will resume with the next command after the function call.

An example of how a function definition can be used wherever a simple command is allowed:

# If variable i is equal to "yes",
# define function foo to be ls -l
#
[ "$i" = yes ] && foo() {
      ls -l
}

The exit status of a function definition will be 0 if the function was declared successfully; otherwise, it will be greater than zero. The exit status of a function invocation will be the exit status of the last command executed by the function.

If the monitor option of the set command is turned on, an interactive shell associates a job with each pipeline. It keeps a table of current jobs, printed by the jobs command, and assigns them small integer numbers. When a job is started asynchronously with &, the shell prints a line which looks like:

[1] 1234

indicating that the job, which was started asynchronously, was job number 1 and had one (top-level) process, whose process id was 1234.

If you are running a job and wish to do something else you may press the key ^Z (Control-Z) which sends a STOP signal to the current job. The shell will then normally indicate that the job has been `Stopped', and print another prompt. You can then manipulate the state of this job, putting it in the background with the bg command, or run some other commands and then eventually bring the job back into the foreground with the foreground command fg. A ^Z takes effect immediately and is like an interrupt in that pending output and unread input are discarded when it is typed.

A job being run in the background will stop if it tries to read from the terminal. Background jobs are normally allowed to produce output, but this can be disabled by giving the command "stty tostop". If you set this tty option, then background jobs will stop when they try to produce output as they do when they try to read input.

There are several ways to refer to jobs in the shell. A job can be referred to by the process id of any process of the job or by one of the following:

%number

The job with the given number.

%string

Any job whose command line begins with string.

%?string

Any job whose command line contains string.

%%

Current job.

%+

Equivalent to %%.

%-

Previous job.

The shell learns immediately whenever a process changes state. It normally informs you whenever a job becomes blocked so that no further progress is possible, but only just before it prints a prompt. This is done so that it does not otherwise disturb your work.

When the monitor mode is on, each background job that completes triggers any trap set for CHLD.

When you try to leave the shell while jobs are running or stopped, you will be warned with the message, `You have stopped(running) jobs.' You may use the jobs command to see what they are. If you do this or immediately try to exit again, the shell will not warn you a second time, and the stopped jobs will be terminated. If you have jobs running for which the nohup command was invoked and attempt to logout, you will be warned with the message:

You have jobs running.

You will then need to logout a second time to actually logout. However, your background jobs will continue to run.

The INT and QUIT signals for an invoked command are ignored if the command is followed by & and the monitor option is not active. Otherwise, signals have the values inherited by the shell from its parent (but see also the trap special command below).

Each time a command is executed, the above substitutions are carried out. If the command name matches one of the Special Commands listed below, it is executed within the current shell process. Next, the command name is checked to see if it matches one of the user defined functions. If it does, the positional parameters are saved and then reset to the arguments of the function call. When the function completes or issues a return, the positional parameter list is restored and any trap set on EXIT within the function is executed. The value of a function is the value of the last command executed. A function is also executed in the current shell process. If a command name is not a special command or a user defined function, a process is created and an attempt is made to execute the command via exec(2).

The shell variable PATH defines the search path for the directory containing the command. Alternative directory names are separated by a colon (:). The default path is /bin:/usr/bin: (specifying /bin, /usr/bin, and the current directory in that order). The current directory can be specified by two or more adjacent colons, or by a colon at the beginning or end of the path list. If the command name contains a / then the search path is not used. Otherwise, each directory in the path is searched for an executable file. If the file has execute permission but is not a directory or an a.out file, it is assumed to be a file containing shell commands. A sub-shell is spawned to read it. All non-exported aliases, functions, and variables are removed in this case. A parenthesized command is executed in a sub-shell without removing non-exported quantities.

The text of the last HISTSIZE (default 128) commands entered from a terminal device is saved in a history file. The file $HOME/.sh_history is used if the HISTFILE variable is not set or if the file it names is not writable. A shell can access the commands of all interactive shells which use the same named HISTFILE. The special command fc is used to list or edit a portion of this file. The portion of the file to be edited or listed can be selected by number or by giving the first character or characters of the command. A single command or range of commands can be specified. If you do not specify an editor program as an argument to fc then the value of the variable FCEDIT is used. If FCEDIT is not defined, then /bin/ed is used. The edited command(s) is printed and re-executed upon leaving the editor. The editor name - is used to skip the editing phase and to re-execute the command. In this case a substitution parameter of the form old=new can be used to modify the command before execution. For example, if r is aliased to 'fc -e -' then typing 'r bad=good c' will re-execute the most recent command which starts with the letter c, replacing the first occurrence of the string bad with the string good.

Normally, each command line entered from a terminal device is simply typed followed by a new-line (RETURN or LINEFEED). If either the emacs, gmacs, or vi option is active, the user can edit the command line. To be in either of these edit modes set the corresponding option. An editing option is automatically selected each time the VISUAL or EDITOR variable is assigned a value ending in either of these option names.

The editing features require that the user's terminal accept RETURN as carriage return without line feed and that a space must overwrite the current character on the screen.

The editing modes implement a concept where the user is looking through a window at the current line. The window width is the value of COLUMNS if it is defined, otherwise 80. If the window width is too small to display the prompt and leave at least 8 columns to enter input, the prompt is truncated from the left. If the line is longer than the window width minus two, a mark is displayed at the end of the window to notify the user. As the cursor moves and reaches the window boundaries the window will be centered about the cursor. The mark is a > if the line extends on the right side of the window, < if the line extends on the left, and * if the line extends on both sides of the window.

The search commands in each edit mode provide access to the history file. Only strings are matched, not patterns, although a leading caret (^) in the string restricts the match to begin at the first character in the line.

This mode is entered by enabling either the emacs or gmacs option. The only difference between these two modes is the way they handle ^T. To edit, move the cursor to the point needing correction and then insert or delete characters or words as needed. All the editing commands are control characters or escape sequences. The notation for control characters is caret ( ^ ) followed by the character. For example, ^F is the notation for control F. This is entered by depressing `f' while holding down the CTRL (control) key. The SHIFT key is not depressed. (The notation ^? indicates the DEL (delete) key.)

The notation for escape sequences is M- followed by a character. For example, M-f (pronounced Meta f) is entered by depressing ESC (ascii 033) followed by `f'. (M-F would be the notation for ESC followed by SHIFT (capital) `F'.)

All edit commands operate from any place on the line (not just at the beginning). Neither the RETURN nor the LINEFEED key is entered after edit commands except when noted.

^F

Move cursor forward (right) one character.

M-f

Move cursor forward one word. (The emacs editor's idea of a word is a string of characters consisting of only letters, digits and underscores.)

^B

Move cursor backward (left) one character.

M-b

Move cursor backward one word.

^A

Move cursor to start of line.

^E

Move cursor to end of line.

^]char

Move cursor forward to character char on current line.

M-^]char

Move cursor backward to character char on current line.

^X^X

Interchange the cursor and mark.

erase

(User defined erase character as defined by the stty(1) command, usually ^H or #.) Delete previous character.

^D

Delete current character.

M-d

Delete current word.

M-^H

(Meta-backspace) Delete previous word.

M-h

Delete previous word.

M-^?

(Meta-DEL) Delete previous word (if your interrupt character is ^? (DEL, the default) then this command will not work).

^T

Transpose current character with next character in emacs mode. Transpose two previous characters in gmacs mode.

^C

Capitalize current character.

M-c

Capitalize current word.

M-l

Change the current word to lower case.

^K

Delete from the cursor to the end of the line. If preceded by a numerical parameter whose value is less than the current cursor position, then delete from given position up to the cursor. If preceded by a numerical parameter whose value is greater than the current cursor position, then delete from cursor up to given cursor position.

^W

Kill from the cursor to the mark.

M-p

Push the region from the cursor to the mark on the stack.

kill

(User defined kill character as defined by the stty(1) command, usually ^G or @.) Kill the entire current line. If two kill characters are entered in succession, all kill characters from then on cause a line feed (useful when using paper terminals).

^Y

Restore last item removed from line. (Yank item back to the line.)

^L

Line feed and print current line.

^@

(null character) Set mark.

M-space

(Meta space) Set mark.

J

(New line) Execute the current line.

M

(Return) Execute the current line.

eof

End-of-file character, normally ^D, is processed as an End-of-file only if the current line is null.

^P

Fetch previous command. Each time ^P is entered the previous command back in time is accessed. Moves back one line when not on the first line of a multi-line command.

M-<

Fetch the least recent (oldest) history line.

M->

Fetch the most recent (youngest) history line.

^N

Fetch next command line. Each time ^N is entered the next command line forward in time is accessed.

^Rstring

Reverse search history for a previous command line containing string. If a parameter of zero is given, the search is forward. string is terminated by a RETURN or NEW LINE. If string is preceded by a ^, the matched line must begin with string. If string is omitted, then the next command line containing the most recent string is accessed. In this case a parameter of zero reverses the direction of the search.

^O

Operate. Execute the current line and fetch the next line relative to current line from the history file.

M-digits

(Escape) Define numeric parameter, the digits are taken as a parameter to the next command. The commands that accept a parameter are ^F, ^B, erase, ^C, ^D, ^K, ^R, ^P, ^N, ^], M-., M-^], M-_, M-b, M-c, M-d, M-f, M-h, M-l and M-^H.

M-letter

Soft-key. Your alias list is searched for an alias by the name _letter and if an alias of this name is defined, its value will be inserted on the input queue. The letter must not be one of the above meta-functions.

M-[letter

Soft-key. Your alias list is searched for an alias by the name __letter and if an alias of this name is defined, its value will be inserted on the input queue. The can be used to program functions keys on many terminals.

M-.

The last word of the previous command is inserted on the line. If preceded by a numeric parameter, the value of this parameter determines which word to insert rather than the last word.

M-_

Same as M-..

M-*

An asterisk is appended to the end of the word and a file name expansion is attempted.

M-ESC

File name completion. Replaces the current word with the longest common prefix of all filenames matching the current word with an asterisk appended. If the match is unique, a / is appended if the file is a directory and a space is appended if the file is not a directory.

M-=

List files matching current word pattern if an asterisk were appended.

^U

Multiply parameter of next command by 4.

\

Escape next character. Editing characters, the user's erase, kill and interrupt (normally ^?) characters may be entered in a command line or in a search string if preceded by a \. The \ removes the next character's editing features (if any).

^V

Display version of the shell.

M-#

Insert a # at the beginning of the line and execute it. This causes a comment to be inserted in the history file.

There are two typing modes. Initially, when you enter a command you are in the input mode. To edit, enter control mode by typing ESC (033) and move the cursor to the point needing correction and then insert or delete characters or words as needed. Most control commands accept an optional repeat count prior to the command.

When in vi mode on most systems, canonical processing is initially enabled and the command will be echoed again if the speed is 1200 baud or greater and it contains any control characters or less than one second has elapsed since the prompt was printed. The ESC character terminates canonical processing for the remainder of the command and the user can then modify the command line. This scheme has the advantages of canonical processing with the type-ahead echoing of raw mode.

If the option viraw is also set, the terminal will always have canonical processing disabled. This mode is implicit for systems that do not support two alternate end of line delimiters, and may be helpful for certain terminals.

By default the editor is in input mode.

erase

(User defined erase character as defined by the stty(1) command, usually ^H or #.) Delete previous character.

^W

Delete the previous blank separated word.

^D

Terminate the shell.

^V

Escape next character. Editing characters and the user's erase or kill characters may be entered in a command line or in a search string if preceded by a ^V. The ^V removes the next character's editing features (if any).

\

Escape the next erase or kill character.

These commands will move the cursor.

[count]l

Cursor forward (right) one character.

[count]w

Cursor forward one alpha-numeric word.

[count]W

Cursor to the beginning of the next word that follows a blank.

[count]e

Cursor to end of word.

[count]E

Cursor to end of the current blank delimited word.

[count]h

Cursor backward (left) one character.

[count]b

Cursor backward one word.

[count]B

Cursor to preceding blank separated word.

[count]|

Cursor to column count.

[count]fc

Find the next character c in the current line.

[count]Fc

Find the previous character c in the current line.

[count]tc

Equivalent to f followed by h.

[count]Tc

Equivalent to F followed by l.

[count];

Repeats count times, the last single character find command, f, F, t, or T.

[count],

Reverses the last single character find command count times.

0

Cursor to start of line.

^

Cursor to first non-blank character in line.

$

Cursor to end of line.

%

Moves to balancing (, ), {, }, [, or ]. If cursor is not on one of the above characters, the remainder of the line is searched for the first occurrence of one of the above characters first.

These commands access your command history.

[count]k

Fetch previous command. Each time k is entered the previous command back in time is accessed.

[count]-

Equivalent to k.

[count]j

Fetch next command. Each time j is entered, the next command forward in time is accessed.

[count]+

Equivalent to j.

[count]G

The command number count is fetched. The default is the least recent history command.

/string

Search backward through history for a previous command containing string. string is terminated by a RETURN or NEWLINE. If string is preceded by a ^, the matched line must begin with string. If string is NULL, the previous string will be used.

?string

Same as / except that search will be in the forward direction.

n

Search for next match of the last pattern to / or ? commands.

N

Search for next match of the last pattern to / or ?, but in reverse direction. Search history for the string entered by the previous / command.

These commands will modify the line.

a

Enter input mode and enter text after the current character.

A

Append text to the end of the line. Equivalent to $a.

[count]cmotion

c[count]motion

Delete current character through the character that motion would move the cursor to and enter input mode. If motion is c, the entire line will be deleted and input mode entered.

C

Delete the current character through the end of line and enter input mode. Equivalent to c$.

[count]s

Delete count characters and enter input mode.

S

Equivalent to cc.

D

Delete the current character through the end of line. Equivalent to d$.

[count]dmotion

d[count]motion

Delete current character through the character that motion would move to. If motion is d, the entire line will be deleted.

i

Enter input mode and insert text before the current character.

I

Insert text before the beginning of the line. Equivalent to 0i.

[count]P

Place the previous text modification before the cursor.

[count]p

Place the previous text modification after the cursor.

R

Enter input mode and replace characters on the screen with characters you type overlay fashion.

[count]rc

Replace the count character(s) starting at the current cursor position with c, and advance the cursor.

[count]x

Delete current character.

[count]X

Delete preceding character.

[count].

Repeat the previous text modification command.

[count]~

Invert the case of the count character(s) starting at the current cursor position and advance the cursor.

[count]_

Causes the count word of the previous command to be appended and input mode entered. The last word is used if count is omitted.

*

Causes an * to be appended to the current word and file name generation attempted. If no match is found, it rings the bell. Otherwise, the word is replaced by the matching pattern and input mode is entered.

\

Filename completion. Replaces the current word with the longest common prefix of all filenames matching the current word with an asterisk appended. If the match is unique, a / is appended if the file is a directory and a space is appended if the file is not a directory.

Miscellaneous commands.

[count]ymotion

y[count]motion

Yank current character through character that motion would move the cursor to and puts them into the delete buffer. The text and cursor are unchanged.

Y

Yanks from current position to end of line. Equivalent to y$.

u

Undo the last text modifying command.

U

Undo all the text modifying commands performed on the line.

[count]v

Returns the command fc -e ${VISUAL:-${EDITOR:-vi}} count in the input buffer. If count is omitted, then the current line is used.

^L

Line feed and print current line. Has effect only in control mode.

J

(New line) Execute the current line, regardless of mode.

M

(Return) Execute the current line, regardless of mode.

#

If the first character of the command is a #, then this command deletes this # and each # that follows a newline. Otherwise, sends the line after inserting a # in front of each line in the command. Useful for causing the current line to be inserted in the history as a comment and removing comments from previous comment commands in the history file.

=

List the file names that match the current word if an asterisk were appended it.

@letter

Your alias list is searched for an alias by the name _letter and if an alias of this name is defined, its value will be inserted on the input queue for processing.

The following simple-commands are executed in the shell process. Input/Output redirection is permitted. Unless otherwise indicated, the output is written on file descriptor 1 and the exit status, when there is no syntax error, is 0. Commands that are preceded by one or two * (asterisks) are treated specially in the following ways:

1. Variable assignment lists preceding the command remain in effect when the command completes.
2. I/O redirections are processed after variable assignments.
3. Errors cause a script that contains them to abort.
4. Words, following a command preceded by ** that are in the format of a variable assignment, are expanded with the same rules as a variable assignment. This means that tilde substitution is performed after the = sign and word splitting and file name generation are not performed.

* : [ arg ... ]

The command only expands parameters.

* . file [ arg ... ]

Read the complete file then execute the commands. The commands are executed in the current shell environment. The search path specified by PATH is used to find the directory containing file. If any arguments arg are given, they become the positional parameters. Otherwise the positional parameters are unchanged. The exit status is the exit status of the last command executed.

** alias [ -tx ] [ name[ =value ] ] ...

alias with no arguments prints the list of aliases in the form name=value on standard output. An alias is defined for each name whose value is given. A trailing space in value causes the next word to be checked for alias substitution. The -t flag is used to set and list tracked aliases. The value of a tracked alias is the full pathname corresponding to the given name. The value becomes undefined when the value of PATH is reset but the aliases remained tracked. Without the -t flag, for each name in the argument list for which no value is given, the name and value of the alias is printed. The -x flag is used to set or print exported aliases. An exported alias is defined for scripts invoked by name. The exit status is non-zero if a name is given, but no value, and no alias has been defined for the name.

bg [ %job... ]

This command is only on systems that support job control. Puts each specified job into the background. The current job is put in the background if job is not specified. See "Jobs" section above for a description of the format of job.

* break [ n ]

Exit from the enclosed for, while, until, or select loop, if any. If n is specified then break n levels. If n is greater than the number of enclosing loops, the outermost enclosing loop shall be exited.

* continue [ n ]

Resume the next iteration of the enclosed for, while, until, or select loop. If n is specified then resume at the n-th enclosed loop. If n is greater than the number of enclosing loops, the outermost enclosing loop shall be used.

cd [ -L ] [ -P ] [ arg ]

cd old new

This command can be in either of two forms. In the first form it changes the current directory to arg. If arg is - the directory is changed to the previous directory. The shell variable HOME is the default arg. The environment variable PWD is set to the current directory. If the PWD is changed, the OLDPWD environment variable shall also be changed to the value of the old working directory, that is, the current working directory immediately prior to the call to change directory (cd). The shell variable CDPATH defines the search path for the directory containing arg. Alternative directory names are separated by a colon (:). The default path is null (specifying the current directory). Notice that the current directory is specified by a null path name, which can appear immediately after the equal sign or between the colon delimiters anywhere else in the path list. If arg begins with a / then the search path is not used. Otherwise, each directory in the path is searched for arg.

-L

Handles the operation dot-dot (..) logically. Symbolic link components are not resolved before dot-dot components are processed.

-P

Handles the operand dot-dot physically. Symbolic link components are resolved before dot-dot components are processed.

If both -L and -P options are specified, the last option to be invoked is used and the other is ignored. If neither -L nor -P is specified, the operand is handled dot-dot logically.

The second form of cd substitutes the string new for the string old in the current directory name, PWD, and tries to change to this new directory. The cd command may not be executed by rksh.

command [-p] [command_name] [argument ...]

command [-v | -V] command_name

The command utility causes the shell to treat the arguments as a simple command, suppressing the shell function lookup. The -p flag performs the command search using a default value for PATH that is guaranteed to find all of the standard utilities. The -v flag writes a string to standard output that indicates the pathname or command that will be used by the shell, in the current shell execution environment, to invoke command_name. The -V flag writes a string to standard output that indicates how the name given in the command_name operand will be interpreted by the shell, in the current shell execution environment.

echo [ arg ... ]

See echo(1) for usage and description.

* eval [ arg ... ]

The arguments are read as input to the shell and the resulting command(s) executed.

* exec [ arg ... ]

If arg is given, the command specified by the arguments is executed in place of this shell without creating a new process. Input/output arguments may appear and affect the current process. If no arguments are given the effect of this command is to modify file descriptors as prescribed by the input/output redirection list. In this case, any file descriptor numbers greater than 2 that are opened with this mechanism are closed when invoking another program.

* exit [ n ]

Causes the calling shell or shell script to exit with the exit status specified by n. The value will be the least significant 8 bits of the specified status. If n is omitted then the exit status is that of the last command executed. When exit occurs when executing a trap, the last command refers to the command that executed before the trap was invoked. An EOF will also cause the shell to exit except for a shell which has the ignoreeof option (See set below) turned on.

** export [ name[=value] ] ...

** export -p

The given names are marked for automatic export to the environment of subsequently-executed commands.

When -p is specified, export writes to the standard output the names and values of all exported variables in the following format:

"export %s=%s\n", name, value

if name is set, and:

"export %s\n", name

if name is unset.

The shell formats the output, including the proper use of quoting, so that it is suitable for reinput to the shell as commands that achieve the same exporting results, except for the following:

1. Read-only variables with values cannot be reset.
2. Variables that were unset at the time they were output are not reset to the unset state if a value is assigned to the variable between the time the state was saved and the time at which the saved output is reinput to the shell.

fc [ -e ename ] [ -nlr ] [ first [ last ] ]

fc -e - [ old=new ] [ command ]

fc -s [ old=new ] [ command ]

In the first form, a range of commands from first to last is selected from the last HISTSIZE commands that were typed at the terminal. The arguments first and last may be specified as a number or as a string. A string is used to locate the most recent command starting with the given string. A negative number is used as an offset to the current command number. If the -l flag is selected, the commands are listed on standard output. Otherwise, the editor program ename is invoked on a file containing these keyboard commands. If ename is not supplied, then the value of the variable FCEDIT (default /bin/ed) is used as the editor. When editing is complete, the edited command(s) is executed. If last is not specified then it will be set to first. If first is not specified the default is the previous command for editing and -16 for listing. The flag -r reverses the order of the commands and the flag -n suppresses command numbers when listing. In the second form the command is re-executed after the substitution old=new is performed. If there is not a command argument, the most recent command typed at this terminal is executed.

fg [ %job... ]

This command is only on systems that support job control. Each job specified is brought to the foreground. Otherwise, the current job is brought into the foreground. See "Jobs" section above for a description of the format of job.

getopts optstring name [ arg ... ]

Checks arg for legal options. If arg is omitted, the positional parameters are used. An option argument begins with a + or a -. An option not beginning with + or - or the argument - ends the options. optstring contains the letters that getopts recognizes. If a letter is followed by a :, that option is expected to have an argument. The options can be separated from the argument by blanks.

getopts places the next option letter it finds inside variable name each time it is invoked with a + prepended when arg begins with a +. The index of the next arg is stored in OPTIND. The option argument, if any, gets stored in OPTARG.

A leading : in optstring causes getopts to store the letter of an invalid option in OPTARG, and to set name to ? for an unknown option and to : when a required option is missing. Otherwise, getopts prints an error message. The exit status is non-zero when there are no more options. See getoptcvt(1) for usage and description.

hash [ name ... ]

hash [ -r ]

For each name, the location in the search path of the command specified by name is determined and remembered by the shell. The -r option causes the shell to forget all remembered locations. If no arguments are given, information about remembered commands is presented. Hits is the number of times a command has been invoked by the shell process. Cost is a measure of the work required to locate a command in the search path. If a command is found in a "relative" directory in the search path, after changing to that directory, the stored location of that command is recalculated. Commands for which this will be done are indicated by an asterisk (*) adjacent to the hits information. Cost will be incremented when the recalculation is done.

jobs [ -lnp ] [ %job ... ]

Lists information about each given job; or all active jobs if job is omitted. The -l flag lists process ids in addition to the normal information. The -n flag displays only jobs that have stopped or exited since last notified. The -p flag causes only the process group to be listed. See "Jobs" section above and jobs(1) for a description of the format of job.

kill [ -sig ] %job ...

kill [ -sig ] pid ...

kill -l

Sends either the TERM (terminate) signal or the specified signal to the specified jobs or processes. Signals are either given by number or by names (as given in signal(3HEAD) stripped of the prefix ``SIG'' with the exception that SIGCHD is named CHLD). If the signal being sent is TERM (terminate) or HUP (hangup), then the job or process will be sent a CONT (continue) signal if it is stopped. The argument job can be the process id of a process that is not a member of one of the active jobs. See Jobs for a description of the format of job. In the second form, kill -l, the signal numbers and names are listed.

let arg</